1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for accessibility insurance coverage management. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for electronically validating insurance coverage for an accessibility service based upon a user's accessibility privileges.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information technology has provided, and continues to provide, a seemingly unlimited amount of information to users. Using the Internet, a user is able to retrieve content corresponding to a particular subject from virtually anywhere around the world. However, this seemingly unlimited amount of information is not in a presentation form that is useful to many users. For example, “spoken” content or content in brail is useful to a blind user but written content is not useful.
A user with accessibility needs may build a functional system that converts a content's original presentation form into a presentation form useful to the user. Using the example described above, the blind user is able to build a functional system that converts written content into spoken content. However, problems of high costs, incompatibility, and the complexity of building such a system exclude many users from building a system. In addition, multiple content formats, markup languages, device capabilities, and network constraints also limits a user's ability to use a personal computer to convert a content's original presentation form into a presentation form useful to the user.
The worldwide migration of the Internet to deliver applications to end users and the spread of wireless communications are decreasing dependence on PC based applications. This migration creates an opportunity to make content available to a user in a useful presentation form by providing a central architectural point from which to transform (i.e. transcode) a content's presentation form. This central architecture may be in the form of a portal server where data is aggregated and possibly transcoded to produce content. It may also be in the form of a “transcoding gateway” such as a transcoding proxy server. The capacity to transform a content's presentation form makes information more usable to a broad range of users, including users with special needs. By using a portal server or intermediary server at the central architectural point, this server modifies the content's presentation form independent of a target operating system and browser. This reduces the installation costs and management costs of client-based accessibility solutions.
Industry and the U.S. government also recognize that content is not currently available to many users. Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act requires the U.S. government to purchase accessible information technology. As a result of Section 508, businesses that market to the U.S. government are modifying their information technology products and enhancing their web content in order for it to be more accessible to users. To make web content more readily accessible, accessibility transcoding services are emerging. A transcoding server, or “web intermediary”, intercepts content requested by a user and modifies its original presentation form to a presentation form useful to the user. The content's original presentation form remains unmodified on the content's server.
Challenges arise, however, with the onset of transcoding services. A user may have insurance coverage that pays all, or a portion of, accessibility service costs, such as content transcoding fees. A challenge found is the ability for an insurance server to electronically manage accessibility insurance coverage requests.
Additionally, a challenge arises in traditional accessibility service insurance coverage verification. For example, a user may wish to park in a handicap parking garage and have a handicap parking garage server bill his insurance server directly. In this example, the handicap parking garage server should verify that the user is authorized to park in the handicap parking garage and that his insurance company pays for handicap parking garage costs.
Furthermore, a challenge found for the insurance server is tracking policyholder accessibility privileges. For example, a policyholder may have temporary accessibility privileges corresponding to a particular accident, such as a broken leg. What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for electronically managing accessibility insurance coverage requests and tracking a user's accessibility privileges.